9 Answers

Employment at will.. You can get fired for no reason and you can tell them to fuck off and walk.

But like the penguin said don’t use them as a reference.

And yeah.. I have never had any sort of loyalty to a employer. They don’t care about me and I return the favor. I have walked away from tons of jobs for various reasons. They still have to pay you for hours worked. But they can’t fuck your credit or put you in jail for walking with no notice.

I have walked away from jobs in the past and later regretted it because it is never a good thing to burn bridges. Sometimes it’s a matter of respect more than it is about actually staying for the extra two weeks. Employers like to get the notice because it shows you respect their time and sometimes won’t even keep you for the two weeks, but I find it’s always good to give them heads up anyway.

I believe that if you give them the two week notice, they are legally not allowed to give you a bad reference. If you are leaving for whatever reason, as long as you give adequate notice (2 weeks), they cannot give any bad reference. They can only say that you worked there and that you left. So if you are looking to leave a job and are in the same field of employment, the 2 week notice is advisable. Not required…you are not a slave and can walk whenever you like…but you it is a “polite” thing to do.

It is common curtesy and professional conduct to give at least 2 weeks notice in writing and verbally of your intensions to resign your position. And at the same time request a letter of recommendation to facilitate obtaining future employment.

The worst thing you can do is just quit with no notice. You don’t ever want to burn the bridge. You may have to do business with your present employer sometime in the future.

Only of you don’t care about ever working there or using them for a reference. In my professional career I have always not only given notice but went to great lengths to make sure I was not leaving them in a bad position.

The few crappy jobs I had when in college I had no loyalty. Once I worked 2½ days washing dishes at a restaurant. The half day was where I found a new job on my lunch hour and just did not come back for the rest of my shift. Another time I was working in a lumber yard and struck up a conversation with the manager from a mobile electronics store across the street and he offered me a job on the spot. I was working in his shop installing sound systems in cars the very next day.